Where's the best place to put a staircase?

Adding a staircase in new build properties.

You may be building a new house in which case you may be able to have your staircase in a few different places depending on your room layout. Your architect will generally position your staircase somewhere obvious where it services all the areas it has to, but that should not necessarily written in stone. Be open minded about where to have your staircase. If you consider this at an early stage you can build your home around it to ensure the structure is in place for when the staircase goes in, this is all too often left to the last with often tricky hurdles to jump and compromises to be made.

Get your staircase designer on board early, have them come up with a general layout to your liking and make sure they talk to your architect and builder early on to ensure all drawings have your desired layout included, so that all other trades know where the staircase is going to be and what is required of them. Your staircase designer should always tell you if your staircase will work in certain positions, there may be issues with space or head clearance based on your architects plans, so make sure you ask if all of this has been considered and allowed for when positioning your staircase.

Staircases for renovations.

You may be renovating your home. In this case your staircase position might be more limited, however just because your existing staircase is where it is, does not mean it has to stay there. It all depends on the extent of the renovation, but consider the space you have and possible tweaks that could be made to your existing shape to make it look and feel like a new build new stair. Adding curves where there are right angles and pulling the structure off the walls slightly add contemporary character whilst not changing the overall layout too much, so work well with renovations.

Your staircase designer should be able to look at your existing stair and be able to suggest creative tweaks whilst designing a staircase to sit in generally the same area. A simple flare to the lower steps, new handrail with decorative volutes at the bottom and beautiful balustrade, are all details that don't affect the overall layout much but could give your renovation and your new staircase big impact in its original space.